Once on a Time

According to the introduction, Milne considered this his best work.
Maybe he liked it best.
He bills it as a fairy tale for grown-ups, because it gently skewers all the standard tropes.
It was humorous, and I think it would make a lovely movie, but it was a bit twee and repetitive.

Excellent to read a standalone novel by the great Milne, after so much familiarity with his stories and poems. It has the same adorable humor sensibilities of Winnie-the-Pooh mixed with some Swiftish satire.

My eldest (14)would give this more stars ⭐️ ⭐️. “Two extra stars. Very funny. For all children great and small. And all adults if you have a sense of humor. If you like Alice In Wonderland you will like this.

If you like psychologically realistic novels- try this anyway and expand your horizons.”

12 year old “Silly, everybody is ludicrous. It’s up there at the top with The Hobbit or Our Island Story.” This is high praise H.E. Marshall is his favorite author. 5/5 stars

10 year old “A magical, bright story perfect for making you want your own seven league boots.” 5/5 stars

first read this book when I was in my early teens- lo, almost 50 years ago now! But for some reason it popped back into my mind a while back, so I located a copy and re-read it.

It was pretty entertaining, and a lot better than my memory had lead me to expect!

It IS very, exceedingly silly. While there are nuances that will likely fly over kids' heads but are fun for adults (no, nothing violent or tawdry), it's pretty child-appropriate.

And while traditional sex/gender roles permeate the plot, it is interesting that Milne's focus is on the "home front", and it's the women's actions and decisions that drive the plot.

It would be a good read-aloud book for reading to kids.

A different type book by Winnie the pooh's inventor, called "a fairy tale for adults", it has all the fixings of a fairy tale (1000 league boots) but laughs at them. Characters haave oodles more personality than in standard fairy tales, with the Countess, little Wiggs, and all other bit players in fairy tales getting as many lines as the stars

This is one of the books which (barely) survived from my childhood library,. I loved it, rereading it many times, before I every realized that it was by the same person who wrote Winnie-the-Pooh. It's the story of the kingdom of Euralia, complete with king, princess, and seven-league boots.

A classic re-read often, more adult than the Winnie-the-Pooh books. The illustrations are also beautiful, and I always remember fondly those 1000-league-boots.